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Comet 12P-Pons-Brooks (Nov 18, 2023).jpg

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This is the small, telescopic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, on November 18, 2023 when it was in Hercules in the evening sky. At that time it had recently undergone an outburst, but was still dim at magnitude 9 or so. The comet has a cyan tint characteristic of comets due to emission from diatomic carbon molecules. It shows a very faint tail stretching away from the coma to the upper left, emphasized here in processing. I have also increased contrast and sharpness in the inner coma to reveal a subtle dark lane of dust being emitted from the nucleus.

Comet Pons-Brooks was discovered in 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons but then was lost until it was found again in 1883 by William Brooks. It is a Halley-type short-period comet with an orbital period of 71 years. It will be closest to the Sun again, at perihelion, on April 21, 2024. Two weeks earlier it will be in the eclipse sky east of the Sun during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. Interestingly, it has been suggested that fragments of Pons-Brooks have narrowly missed colliding with Earth.

This is a stack of 6 x 3-minute exposures with the Astro-Tech AT90CFT telescope at f/4.8 and with the Canon EOS R at ISO 1600. Auto-guided on the stars.
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Comets
This is the small, telescopic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, on November 18, 2023 when it was in Hercules in the evening sky. At that time it had recently undergone an outburst, but was still dim at magnitude 9 or so. The comet has a cyan tint characteristic of comets due to emission from diatomic carbon molecules. It shows a very faint tail stretching away from the coma to the upper left, emphasized here in processing. I have also increased contrast and sharpness in the inner coma to reveal a subtle dark lane of dust being emitted from the nucleus.<br /> <br /> Comet Pons-Brooks was discovered in 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons but then was lost until it was found again in 1883 by William Brooks. It is a Halley-type short-period comet with an orbital period of 71 years. It will be closest to the Sun again, at perihelion, on April 21, 2024. Two weeks earlier it will be in the eclipse sky east of the Sun during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. Interestingly, it has been suggested that fragments of Pons-Brooks have narrowly missed colliding with Earth. <br /> <br /> This is a stack of 6 x 3-minute exposures with the Astro-Tech AT90CFT telescope at f/4.8 and with the Canon EOS R at ISO 1600. Auto-guided on the stars.